


New Year's Eve

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Established Relationship, F/M, Fireworks, Fluff, New Year's Eve, New Year's Fluff, New Year's Kiss, Party, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-28
Updated: 2020-12-28
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:49:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28388061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: Twelve hours in the mind of Ethan Ramsey on NYE.MC’s at a party, Ethan’s working and midnight is approaching.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Kudos: 19





	New Year's Eve

**12 hours until midnight**

“Are you sure I can’t tempt you to come out tonight?”

Her voice rings out across his office, her footfall so soft that he barely notices her walk in.

“What’s tonight?” he asks casually, shuffling paperwork.

Eve bites back a smile, and his gaze falls on her rosy mouth, utterly distracted.

“New Year’s Eve, Ethan. You know, where you get drunk and celebrate?”

She’s teasing him. He senses an age joke coming so he plays along, obliging. Anything to make her happy.

“I hardly see what there is to celebrate about one year changing to another.”

“Guess that’s the fun of it.”

“I’ll be working late,” he says. 

He wonders if her lips taste different at midnight.

“I know. Just making sure you know you’re…wanted.”

Her voice is gentle as she slides over to him and places a delicate hand around his neck. He closes his eyes and leans in to her with a soft smile.

Snow lilts over the large office windows, blanketing the city in white.

How does he tell her that she always makes him feel that way.

  
**9 hours until midnight**

Afternoon breaks over Boston, the crackling cold sharpened by the winter sun.

He reads the open email again, tapping impatiently on the counter.

> From: Edenbrook Human Resources Department  
> To: Ramsey, Ethan J.
> 
> As part of our annual review, we are updating staff records for attending physicians. We have checked your file and require emergency contact information for a secondary contact.
> 
> Currently we have the following listed:
> 
> Contact 1: Alan Ramsey (Father)  
> Contact 2: None
> 
> If this information is up-to-date, please disregard this email. 

The smell of coffee fills the room still and he looks over to the abandoned paper cup on the other side of the desk. On the rim there’s a lipstick stain in blush pink. The shade of the sky on a late summer evening.

He thinks of the way he finds the same lipstick on white towels and silk sheets in his apartment. Black mascara stains. The smell of jasmine.

The email flashes back at him with possibility. 

Although it seems simple, he knows it means something more.

  
**7 hours until midnight**

Ethan’s heart beats in clusters these days. The beats when she’s with him and all the beats that keep him alive until he sees her again.

He’s still in the office, same place he’s been all day, but now the difference is she’s here.

“Just wanted to give you a little preview before I go.”

Eve twirls in front of him in a golden dress and the light dances off her until they’re both dizzy. 

His eyes glaze over.

Dark hair and green eyes that have been his weakness for so long now.

His office is the wrong place to see her like this. To be this enchanted. To want her this much. 

“Eve, you look beautiful. Always.”

She inches closer, eyes locked on his.

“But especially now?”

“Especially now.”

His voice is low, deeper than he’s ever heard it as he wraps around her and pulls her in. 

He kisses her harder than he intended when she presses up against him. 

He’s a little too eager. 

When they break apart she looks up at him, and he swears he sees stars.

“Sure you can’t come with me?”

He shakes his head softly.

“I should stay until I’ve got my patient’s results back. But you go have fun.”

She nods.

“Maybe I could see you after?” she asks, eyes shining wide and hopeful.

He’s been waiting for this moment. If he’s honest, for weeks.

“I don’t know when I’ll be home but you can let yourself in.”

He slides a key across the table.

It’s so shiny and fresh that she must know he had it made just for her. 

The room is silent. 

She looks at it. Then at him. Bites her lip and smiles.

They both know the key isn’t just for tonight.

This is the dance they do, he thinks. Always unspoken, the important things said in another language they both understand. 

And it’s perfect.

  
**6 hours until midnight**

He doesn’t type the reply fast. Doesn’t rush to send it before he changes his mind.

Instead, he relishes it.

Takes another sip of coffee and reads over each word.

> From: Ramsey, Ethan J.  
> To: Edenbrook Human Resources Department
> 
> Please add Dr Eve Valentine (significant other) to my file. Her details are in her staff record. 

  
**3 hours until midnight**

“Tell me a secret.”

Her voice through the phone soothes him. Like a soft breeze on the Pacific she grew up by.

How long has it been since they spoke, one hour, perhaps two? Too long either way.

“Excuse me?”

“We’re playing a game and it made me think of you.”

“You’re playing truth or dare,” he replies without thinking.

“How did you know?”

She’s curious and playful. 

“Your Pictagram.”

“Stalking me again Dr Ramsey?”

He keeps his tone brusque but a smile creeps through.

“You’ve set it so I get a notification every time you post. I can’t make it stop.”

There it is again. Her laughter.

The only thing he wants to listen to.

He can hear the party in the background. A blur of music and shouting and other people who are so easy to block out when it’s Eve he’s listening to.

She sounds a little drunk. She laughs too much and she texts him more than she usually does. 

A warmth rises through his chest when he realises that being apart makes her think of him more. 

“Huh. Well tell me a secret anyway,” she giggles.

She’s not being entirely serious but he doesn’t stop himself. Never can when it’s her. 

All this time later and he still finds himself wanting to confide in her, in the way he always has. The secret about Naveen. That’s what got them into this mess. 

And what a beautiful mess. 

“I never make New Year’s resolutions but last year I made one,” he says.

“I thought you didn’t believe in New Year’s?”

“I don’t. I found myself a little desperate.”

That’s an understatement and he knows it. 

“What was it? The resolution?”

“I promised I wouldn’t kiss you again.”

Both of them are silent. 

It was a few weeks after Miami and she was stuck in his head, so unforgiving that he wondered if he was captured under a spell.

He listens to the din of the party through the phone. Waits for her response. Wonders if he should explain. 

And then she’s laughing.

“Ethan, you kissed me at the opera remember? Right after new year?”

“I know. I didn’t say I managed to keep to it.”

He feels himself start to laugh along. 

The utter absurdity of trying to stay away from her. 

“Maybe you can make a new resolution this year?” she whispers gently through the phone.

Curiosity washes over him and he feels his breath catch. 

“What’s that?”

“Kiss me whenever you like?” 

“Done.”

His affirmation is so quick, so firm, that he’s sure he made her pulse race. 

**2 hours until midnight**

“So I got an email from Human Resources.”

Ethan groans through the phone. The lamplight in his empty office dances off his tired face. 

“Apparently I’m now listed as your emergency contact? Something about your significant other?” Eve says feigning seriousness. The party rages on in the background.

“I can change it, I…”

“Don’t. I like it.”

Her voice is final. The kind of authority she never uses. The kind that makes him want to drive halfway across Boston and sweep her into his arms immediately. 

Comfortable silence hangs between them. 

They’re both smiling. 

He can hear it. There’s that unspoken thing again. 

“Tobias is here by the way.”

“Carrick?”

“Mmhmm. He just told me the cutest story about you from when you were at Hopkins.”

His heart rate rises involuntarily but calms at once. 

Nothing Tobias says can ruffle Eve so he might as well enjoy the fun.

“Something about how you both signed up for the Baltimore Half Marathon but you ended up on the wrong route and did the full marathon instead? You gave an interview in the paper?”

He smiles to himself.

“I’m surprised he told you that story.”

“He’s been pretty complimentary about you actually,” she says.

“That’s because he knows you’re my…”

When he pauses, she doesn’t miss a beat.

“Significant other?” she beams through the phone.

“Right. That.”

That warm silence again. The kind he could bathe in for the rest of time.

“Eve?”

“Mmm?”

“I’ll be as quick as I can tonight.”

He hopes she catches the intent in his tone. 

“Good,” she says sincerely, “Because Bryce’s surgeon buddy Brick is offering to kiss me at midnight.”

“We both know you’ll enjoy that even less than I will,” he replies with a smirk.

Her laugh is so rich, laced in the gold of her dress, that he can’t help but be glad he caused it. 

  
**30 minutes until midnight**

The office is nearly dark. When his phone buzzes he raises an eyebrow at the unexpected message. 

  
**_Yo, Ethan, you need to get over heerree_ **

_Dr Lahela, are you drunk?_

**_It’s NYE, are you not?_ **

**_Just get over here, man_ **

_Is something wrong?_

**_Eve had a tough year. You need to help her see it out_ **

_Right. Thanks._

_I **’m saving a beer for you**_

_Got it, Lahela._

**_You’re gonna want to sing Auld Lang Syne with me_ **

_Stop._

  
Being with Eve comes with knowing her friends. Just like her, these days, they’ve always got his back. 

He grabs his coat and switches the light off as he types the final message, and with a final look into the darkened room, he calls a cab. 

  
**30 seconds until midnight**

The hall is packed and the bar is buzzing. Everyone is gathered in pairs by the wide windows that have the best view of Boston’s fireworks. 

Time isn’t his friend. 

He know it shouldn’t matter. A kiss at the turn of the year means nothing more than the kisses he traces softly up her neck at dawn.

And he can kiss her every day of the next year. As openly as he likes. 

The thought of that is enough to make his breath hitch as he paces the room.

But it means something to her. He knows it does. 

He looks for gold.

First he sees Sienna, then Elijah and he should talk to them but a strange urgency forces him to keep looking. 

Then Rafael. Aurora and Jackie. 

There’s champagne glasses on every table. Confetti all over the floor.

No Eve. 

He circles the room so fast, a guest tuts at him. He wouldn’t care on a good day. 

When he notices Tobias leaning against a counter next to a blonde, he almost groans again.

But then he sees her. 

Golden.

Positioned by the window, staring up at the blank night sky. 

Through the room the countdown starts.

10, 9, 8, 7, 6…

He kisses her by 5. 

Traces his lips over hers and listens to her moan in surprise. 

4, 3, 2, 1...

He doesn’t hear any of it. The fireworks or the cheering. And he’s sure she doesn’t either. 

When they break apart, he thumbs the colours of fireworks reflected across her skin.

“I thought you couldn’t make it?” she smiles.

“Turns out I was wrong.”

He runs another finger over her cheek, fascinated. Wonders if he’s touched all of her yet. 

Pressed against him, her heart races beside his and he drinks in the moment.

His voice is soft as he leans his forehead to hers. 

“Happy New Year.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading my work this year and happy new year!
> 
> @starrystarrytrouble / Ruby


End file.
